SACRAMENTO — A scathing state review of California’s strained Medi-Cal program confirms what thousands of the health plan’s exasperated enrollees have long complained about: The department tasked with overseeing health care for almost one third of the state’s residents cannot ensure it has enough doctors to serve its 12.3 million patients.

The 46-page audit released Tuesday morning by the California State Auditor revealed that the Department of Health Care Services didn’t verify the accuracy of the list of doctors available through the public health care program’s managed care plans. That means it cannot guarantee the plans have enough providers to take care of the skyrocketing number of Medi-Cal enrollees.

Moreover, the report said, from February 2014 to January 2015, an ombudsman’s office established to investigate and resolve complaints failed to answer 7,000 to 45,000 calls a month from frustrated Medi-Cal patients.

Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, the federal and state funded health care program for low-income residents and the disabled. State auditors who reviewed provider directories for three Medi-Cal health plans in selected counties — Anthem Blue Cross in Fresno County, Health Net in Los Angeles County, and Partnership HealthPlan of California in Solano County — also found inaccuracies ranging from incorrect telephone numbers for providers to listings of providers who were no longer participating.

“This confirms long-standing concerns regarding oversight and access to provider care in Medi-Cal,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a nonprofit health care advocacy group. “But what’s most troubling is that the audit suggests we don’t have the oversight to even identify where the problems are.”

The audit was requested last summer by Sen. Richard Lara, D-Bell Gardens, after widespread inaccuracies were reported in some Medi-Cal provider directories.

Auditors recommend that by September, the Department of Health Care Services should establish a process to verify the accuracy of the provider network data. Auditors also said the state should upgrade or replace the ombudsman’s telephone system and database.

The California Academy of Family Physicians, one of many critics of Medi-Cal’s chronic underfunding, issued a statement, saying patients are being punished by the inaccurate provider listings and also by the shortage of doctors who are willing to accept some of the lowest Medicaid payment rates in the country.

“Allowing such conditions in the health care program responsible for serving millions of children, seniors and people with disabilities is unacceptable,” said Dr. Jay W. Lee, president of the 9,000-member physician’s group.

“This discriminates against people living in poverty. Patients’ access to care and Medi-Cal’s low payment rates to providers must be addressed.”

Until January 2014, Medi-Cal served about 8.6 million Californians but has added about 3.7 million patients since. At least half of them came on board through a provision in the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s new health care law, which expanded Medicaid access in many states.

“It’s time for the state to admit it has a crisis in Medi-Cal that harms millions,” said Dave Regan, president of the Service Employees International Union/United Healthcare Workers West, the state’s largest union of health care workers. “Underfunding Medi-Cal is both a health crisis and a moral crisis,” said Regan, whose union recently helped organize a massive rally at the state Capitol to pressure legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown to restore Medi-Cal rates for doctors.

Lawmakers reduced doctors’ reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal by 10 percent during the recession and have failed to restore them.

Samuel White knows all about the impact. The 52-year-old unemployed construction worker from Stockton said he enrolled in Medi-Cal in November, but doctors listed on his plan either said they weren’t taking new Medi-Cal patients, or it would take months to get a first appointment.

That finally happened in April, and a stomach ache he’s suffered has turned out to be blockage in his pancreas and a mass in his stomach. He said the doctors aren’t sure if it’s cancer, but he hopes to know more at his next appointment in early July.

He hopes the results of the audit will be a wake-up call to the state to fix a broken system.

“Eventually they are going to have to respond,” said White. “You can’t keep saying you’re doing something, and not keep doing it.”

A state audit found the Department that oversees Medi-Cal: Did not verify health plan data; Did not monitor health plans to ensure they meet Medi-Cal patients’ medical needs;Can’t be certain that quarterly reviews of provider networks are based on accurate data;Did not confirm accuracy of provider directories for three health plans the state reviewed — Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net and Partnership HealthPlan;Did not answer thousands of calls from Medi-Cal patients to an ombudsman’s office established to investigate and resolve complaints.

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